496 



SOME SOUTH INDIAN INSECTS, ETC. 



I 1G. (84.- Idiocerus niveosparsus. The small outline figure shows the 

 natural sizi . i I 



Distribution. Throughout the Plains of Southern India. 



Lifehistory. The small eggs are laid in shoots of the foodplant. 

 The young are similar to the adult but wingless and the legs com- 

 paratively longer. The bugs, both nymphs and adults, feed on the 

 sap of shoots and flower-stalks, excreting a sticky substance (honey- 

 dew) which, when the bugs are numerous, is produced in very large 

 quantity, and a characteristic black fungus soon grows on the 

 honey-dew. 



Foodplants. — Mango. 



Status. Sometimes a serious pest of mango, the honey-dew ex- 

 creted by the bugs falling on the flowers so that they fail to set fruit. 



Control. — Spraying of mango-trees before the flowers open if the 

 bugs are present in any numbers. After the flowers have opened 

 the bugs may sometimes be driven from the trees by kindling 

 smoky fires below them. 



TETTIGONIELLA SPECTRA, Dist. 

 Tettigoniella spectra, Distant, Faun. Ind. Rhyn., IV. 211, f. 137; 

 Lefroy, Ind. Ins. Life, pp. 736-737, f. 51 1 . 



Fig. 3S5. — Tettigoniella spectra. The small'outline figure shows the 

 natural size. (Original.) 



